All About Hattie

Don't worry, I'll get to the Alice party next.  That deserves it's own post.  

Besides turning FIVE, Harriet has had a very big week. Her preschool continues to be over-the-top, unreal.  They have done 4 field trips in 4 weeks?  They are studying dinosaurs and volcanoes.  So, they went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur bones and the next week, they hiked the volcanoes, to name two.  They have also had their art show (where they turn the preschool into an art gallery), and oh, we registered her for KINDERGARTEN last night!  Here are the highlights of the birthday week:

Hiking the volcanoes on a VERY windy day.  I couldn't believe these little kids were such troopers.  

 Inside the vent of a fissure volcano!

 Describing to her class what she brought for her birthday snack:  pink donuts, yellow bananas, and apple juice.

Climbing the tree at recess:

Blowing out her preschool birthday candle (if you're keeping track, this is #6)

 After school, we headed to the park to fly those kites from the Easter Bunny.  What fun!  Thank you Easter Bunny!  (oh, and we won't dare to mention what we found written on the playground equipment that day.)

 Grace and Harriet actually enjoying spending time together in close proximity.

The day of the ACTUAL birthday,  Daddy was out of town.  He's been gone A LOT lately.  We woke up early and brought the computer upstairs and opened presents in bed while we skyped with David.  It was a good start to the day.  

The only picture I took of Harriet on her birthday (I know - where is it in this week of celebration?)  was a phone pic at "Chunky" Cheese as Hattie calls it.  We let the kids pick their birthday dinners.  Harriet asked for Chuck-E-Cheese's.  Since David was gone (and hates ChuckECheese), I decided it was a good time to go, so we went for an hour of games and a quick cheese pizza.  Harriet was so funny.  She thought that she wouldn't "turn 5" until she blew out 5 candles on the day of her birthday.  So, we took 5 candles to Chuck E Cheese.  They wouldn't stand up in the pizza, so I held them in my hands hoping she'd blow them out quick!  Thankfully, she got them all in one whiff.  (that's 11 candles now.)  So, now she tells Daddy that she turned 5 at Chunky Cheese.   What a cutie. 

Next up:   Preschool art show - standing next to the pretend volcano.  I'm telling you, these teachers are crazy!

 Climbing the preschool tree.  Again.  No worries that we wore nice clothes.  You can climb trees in dresses, right?  Just kick off the slippery shoes first.  Anything goes when you're 5!!

Harriet, Sweet Harriet

Happy 5th Birthday to my incredible little Hattie Marie,

My first present to you on your birthday is that I actually did this post last night while you were asleep so you wouldn't have to wait around for me on the computer while I did it.  I know how you hate it when I am on the computer.

You are 5!  5 is so big for my baby to be.  You have had many big plans for "when you turn 5."  Among the more fun ones:  taking the training wheels off your bike, going to school with Grace, and, learning to read.

I just can't get over what an extreme child you are.  Most people only see the angelic, quiet, shy, sweet as syrup Hattie.  That's how you are whenever you are at church, school, the grocery store, and pretty much anywhere outside of our house.  But, I know the real girl.  I know the one who has taken up sliding down the banister instead of using the stairs.  I know the one who punches her sister first before asking for an explanation or an apology.  I know the one who screams and pouts and scrunches her face into a tiny little raisin.  I know the one who refuses to get dressed before noon any day she can help it.

I also get to be the one to snuggle you and "tickle you with one finger" on demand, any time of day.  I get to hear your unbelievably thoughtful prayers.  I get to be the one to take you with me everywhere all day long.  I get to smooch your delicious dimpled cheeks when you are sitting in the grocery cart.  I am going to miss you all day when you go to kindergarten, you little stinker!

For the record, this is what you are up to and liking these days (I have had so many things cross my mind lately that I wanted to write and now I can't remember any of them.  Well, here goes):

*counting to 20 flawlessly (this one took a while)
*starting to sound out words, just a little
*making patterns with everything - the one that comes to mind is lining up colored Hershey kisses in a pattern
*trying to figure out the calendar.  right now you deal with things in "number of wake-ups away" from today.  You were really let down by the calendar tonight.  You thought your Daddy would be home to see you turn 5, but sadly, he won't.  He will be home on Saturday to be at your birthday party.  That darn calendar got in the way and you thought those things would all happen on the same day.
*loving nature - looking at stars, flowers, and noticing animals and birds
*jokes - you have started telling jokes that make no sense.  They are terrible.  You're driving Grace nuts.  But, she forgets that she drove us nuts for 3 years before she figured out how to tell a joke that made sense.
*friends - you ask for playdates every day.  I can't keep up, but I've tried.  I've had more kids play at my house in the last 6 months than the last 8 years combined.  Poor Grace - I rarely had friends over when she was little.  So, when you say "Grace is so lucky because..." remember, you are lucky too.
*climbing.  You are one branch away from the swinging monkeys on the primate family tree.  You begged me all winter for good shoes to hike the volcanoes because your other ones just weren't good enough for climbing on rocks.  Now that we've made good on the shoes, you are all set to climb EVERYTHING!
*princesses.  You love the princesses from Snow White to Rapunzel.  Apparently most 4-6 year old girls do since those sizes are always GONE at the Disney store.  I'm just glad you aren't interested in marrying a prince just yet, but hope someday to marry Grace!  Maybe I'll let you watch the Royal Wedding this Friday.
*Alice in Wonderland - this is a recent favorite discovery that you and Grace share.  You love everything to do with Alice and I can't wait to see how your Alice party turns out on Saturday!
*horses.  We spent the weekend watching Secretariat.  I can't wait to turn you loose at Hybid Farm camp this summer!  It will be so fun for you to go as a camper for the first time and not Mommy's accessory.
*babies and wishing to be a big sister.  Little sis', I don't know what to tell you.  You'd make the best big sister ever.   We're still trying to get a little sibling for you so that you can be in charge of somebody.  Until then, I guess you'll have to keep bossing Grace around and hitting her when she doesn't listen.
*dressing up!  I finally have a little girl who likes dresses and doing her hair.  I am so out of practice though - I have to force myself to remember to do it.  You usually end up in a t-shirt and jeans with stringy hair, but you've been vocal enough about it lately that I've tried to get you some "fancier" clothes and do your hair more often.  I just think it's so funny that you wish you had more dresses to wear to school.  Do you know how many decades it took to get people to let girls wear pants to school?  Well, I'm glad you have the choice anyway.  Wear the dresses if you like.

Well Happy Birthday my gorgeous girl.  I hope you are happy all day.  Thanks for letting me be your Mommy!
Love,
Mommy

Easter 2011

We had a really nice and sweet Easter weekend.  Since Harriet's birthday is tomorrow (!), we had a combo Easter dinner/family birthday party on Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa.  We tried this silk-dyed Easter egg thing that my friend Sacha told me about using the silk from old silk ties.  Ours didn't turn out quite as vibrant with clear patterns as I hoped, but they are still pretty.  And, they look even cuter in the Easter basket that Grace made out of yarn.

Harriet loved every second of the start to her birthday week celebrations and blew out her first 5 year old candles.  (how many candles is she going to blow out this week?)

Sunday was kind of a weird church day.  We had traveling general authorities from the church come to Albuquerque, and so they scheduled huge stake meetings throughout the area.  The speakers were great, but they really didn't stay on Easter topics, and we didn't even sing Easter hymns.  It also meant that we didn't get to go to regular church with people we know well, the kids didn't get to go to their primary classes, and we didn't take the sacrament.  I'm not sure how I feel about that part.  It would have been impossible to do sacrament in such a huge meeting, but this is the 2nd year in a row that church circumstances have prevented taking sacrament on Easter Sunday (last year, Easter fell on General Conference weekend.)

The girls did wear new Easter dresses for church.  Grace was so surprising.  She rarely wants to be like Hattie and I thought I had probably (sadly) bought their last set of matching dresses for Christmas - thinking for sure that I had pushed the matching issue as long as I could.  So, when we went shopping for Easter dresses, Harriet found this totally darling, girly, butterfly dress that I didn't think Grace would even care about.  But she was completely bummed that it only went up to a size 6 and she and Harriet couldn't wear matching dresses.  She did find one she liked and much more her personality, but it did feel weird not having them match.

The Easter Bunny visited as well.  The girls are getting too funny.  They have now blended the idea of leaving cookies for Santa into Easter and left sugar cookies for the Easter bunny.  Instead of stuffed animal bunnies in the baskets (whew!), he left kites and whirlygigs for the yard!  Yay, at least we can do something in this ABQ wind!

We finished off the weekend with friends.  The Wixoms invited us over for Easter dinner, along with the Howards and a few others.  We are so lucky to know so many extremely awesome people.  (Love this shot of Keisha starting off the egg hunt!)

Happy Easter to all.  

April showers bring... wait... that doesn't work here

I don't know where in the world April showers truly bring May flowers.  Maybe that happened when we lived in Salt Lake sometimes.  In Massachusetts it was more like March, April, May, and June torrential rains bring July jungles.  You might see May flowers if they didn't drown.  Here in NM, I have literally counted on one hand the number of times the ground has been wet since September!  No, we're in a major drought, even for the desert.  It rained once or twice in the fall for like 5 minutes, then, I think we got 3 snow "storms" over the winter.    This spring it has "rained" enough only to get my car dirty and spotty, but evaporated before hitting the ground.  My new favorite weather forecast is "rain that will evaporate before it gets anything wet."  Still, even as much as I LOVE being completely dry with no storms in sight, one does have to worry just a little about NO rain in the spring, right?  I will have a hard time giving up my super long showers if we have water restrictions.

This post though, is for my New England friends whom I love to torture with reports of fantastic weather.  It's not perfect here every single day.  Only 330 days a year.  We're actually having our worst season for weather right now.  Spring in NM sucks big time.  Or maybe I should say, it blows.  April winds bring... allergies?  Yesterday we had 40-50 mph sustained winds with gusts in the 70's.  Today it has calmed down to 20-30 mph.  When it blows from the north it is COLD too.  I remember this going on for endless weeks last year.  This year hasn't been so bad though, we've had 2-3 day breaks in between of, yes, incredibly gorgeous days.  But, this wind is really something.  It blows in tons of pollen and keeps it in the air.  My kids, who have never had allergies in their lives, got so sick with allergies this spring that I had to take them to the doctor for prescription meds and Grace probably should have stayed home from school a couple of days.  Spring in Albuquerque is definitely not our favorite, to say the least.

Now, I've discovered - you don't have to have ANY showers to bring spring flowers.   Well, maybe a you need a watering can once in a while.  I'm thoroughly enjoying my 2 small spots of colorful flowers in the front yard that are standing strong despite the harsh wind and very little water.  Things do bloom here - I can't wait until the cacti start blooming.  We've had the trees blossom (and then have the petals blown away by the wind.)  I've also had my bulbs come up!  For the record, I put these in the ground on December 15th.  It was a very nice warm day just before we got one of our 3 snow storms.  I actually worried that it might not get cold enough for them to stay dormant until spring, but we did have 2 weeks of super cold weather and several weeks of chilly, so it seemed to do the job nicely.

So that's it for gardening for me this spring.  One pot of pansies to stuff my face into on the way in the front door, and a little ring of bulbs around the single tree in our front yard.  I am really quite amazed at how awesome bulbs are.  They grow in nearly any climate and without any tending.  Any flower that will rise up in my yard without my attention is my best friend.  I am a very neglectful gardener.  If you want to survive at my house, you have to be able to tolerate (many) forgotten waterings, zero attention to soil conditions, and zero prep time before you go in the ground.  Oh, and you have to be able to survive our resident desert bunny named Lava Rock.  He likes our front yard because it's the only one on the street with anything green.  Everyone else just grows rocks, pebbles and gravel.  So far, Lava Rock has only made a couple of nibbles.

Cousin Time

We always love to have ourselves some cousin time.  If there is one thing I extremely regret about not living close to family, it is that my kids have never lived in the same state as any of their cousins and I really wish that the little people had more time together.  In a world where I doubt I will ever let my kids have sleepovers with friends, it would sure be nice to trade some cousins on the weekends.  I guess we will have to be grateful for our seasonal visits.  We had 2 sets of cousins come to celebrate Grace's baptism with us.  We sure loved having them here and cried when they left.

playing UNO - Diary of a Wimpy Kid version:

Albuquerque Aquarium:

an afternoon in Old Town:

a few video games:

oh, and the polar bears at the zoo continue to provide awesome entertainment.  they rarely disappoint...  how often do you get to see a polar bear swimming under water?